Brake Bleeding with compressed air question...

2004, teves 20 system? abs, town & country limited,

so brakes worked fine, stopped great, noticed front rotors glazed so replaced and put new pads on. did not bleed just push cal back in. all good, even better than before. so decided to flush brake fluid after reading some posts, fluid was brown. sucked fluid out of m/c and put clean in, was fine, the next day, decided to flush the rear lines. i hooked up air compressor to m/c and applied 15 to 20 pounds, went in back and flushed out r/r and l/r only - ran out of brake fluid, well m/c is full, back lines have clear fluid and now i have no brakes.

-engine off and pumping 2 or 3 times and cant move pedal down,
-engine off releasing pres & holding 1/2 way down then starting, can feel it wanting to come up alittle but barely
-engine on, no dash lights, just goes to floor easy, pumping does not help, pedal will come back up if i let off.
-engine running and in gear trying to stop? barely only at very bootm of floor does it stop.
-no outside brake leaks

so my question...what did i screw up? :shakehead

you need to bleed the system some more.you still have air in system
maybe try to gravity bleed

What I noticed with any older Dodge vehicle (I gather that 2004 may also work...) is you need to LEAVE the IGNITION KEY OFF when bleeding... With the key on, you power up the ABS unit causing air bubbles to get stirred up...

Main thing, is to RELIEVE the pressure from the ABS...

With key off... PUMP BRAKE PEDAL 200 TIMES (they say 30 times, but I found 200 times is right for really airbound systems...

Then go through the bleeding process (with key off), but you absolutely MUST bleed the master cylinder from the lines first, as well as from the ABS...

You can try to NOT bleed the ABS unit if you pump the brake 200 times and bleed the master and 4 wheels, but if it doesn't work, you'll need to pump it 200 times again when you need to rebleed...

Also, these vans have a diagonal braking system... Which ever wheel in the back ran out of fluid, then the opposite side in the front needs to be bled...

Hope that helps...
Mike

thanks so far for answers, will do tomorrow and post back. i did monitor the m/c with brake fluid and never let it past half way to quarter empty. that made me wonder about what i ruined using air-compressor, but hope with both methods you all mentioned it will come back to life since i didnt bleed them right. the brake is really hard to push after about 5 times with engine off. cant wait to tell the wife to pump it 200 times...lol. good thing i just did her brakes..

Honestly, I bleed everything by hand... The master cylinder needs to be moved to get any air out of small spaces...

I mean the compressed air could possibly, "invert" the seal in it's bore, but I doubt it...

And YOU can pump it 200 times, just don't EVER turn on the key because you power up that ABS unit...

Then when you're ready to bleed it, THEN your wife can get back in...

Also, make sure you diagonally bleed it as well...

RR, FL, LR, FR

Mike

mike, ina, you rock! thanks. all is well, i just let the level get to low using the compressed air i guess. bled manual, key off, listened to wife whine cause of all the pumping, bled in order as listed, and they are workin great. thought i blew some gasket or o-ring in the master cyclinder using the air, again - thank you for all the help!

LOL... Thank you...

My first time was amazing to me too... That you can bleed that thing all day long the conventional way and keep scratching your head...

Once you pump it all those times (without re-energizing that ABS unit), any trapped air in the ABS unit gets released and allows the air to get pushed through the system...

I'm glad all is okay...

Ya know, you could have pumped it the first 200 times YOURSELF instead of sticking to your wife! LOL... As long as the key was off the whole time; gee, that's like spousal abuse, LOL...

Take care
Mike

lol.. had to take advantage of the 200 pumps to get back at having to watch a chic flic she got from netflix..think i'll have to bleed them again if im stuck watching another one. i just had this big smile on my face underneath when she was complaining, you helped in more ways than one lol..

LOL... Okay, good luck...